


Caving In

by Spoon888



Category: The Transformers (Cartoon Generation One), Transformers - All Media Types
Genre: And Two Idiots Bickering, Cave-In, Fluff and Humour, M/M, Megatron's Sensory Crown Thing, Pre-Relationship, Starscream being Starscream, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-06
Updated: 2019-11-06
Packaged: 2021-01-24 09:20:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,746
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21335887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spoon888/pseuds/Spoon888
Summary: Trapped underground with an ungrateful seeker, Megatron has to rely on his past as a miner to get them both to safety.
Relationships: Megatron/Starscream
Comments: 49
Kudos: 364





	Caving In

**Author's Note:**

  * For [rakketyrivertam](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rakketyrivertam/gifts).

Megatron onlined his optics to utter darkness and screaming proximity sensors. The air was damp and thin, and a great deal of it's already limited supply was being sucked up by the frantic panting of the panicking individual under him. 

Megatron shifted his optical lens's to night-vision and lifted his head from where it rested to find himself peering down at a shaking, hyperventilating Starscream. The air was still cloudy with dust, and when he shifted -hyperaware of his proximity to the seeker- tiny rocks and gravel fell from his armour seams to land across Starscream's wings with little plink-plink-plinks. 

Starscream wheezed in fright, and Megatron realised the stabbing pain he was feeling in his chest was from his second in command's claws, and not caused by any damage from the rockslide. 

Cursed Autobots, he thought, recalling their early detonation of his own bomb, giving him just a split-second to act before becoming buried under the avalanche of stone and rock. He had thrown himself on top of Starscream out of instinct. His armour was dense and designed for this sort of disaster. Starscream would have been crushed like a can in a vice. 

Realising he was squashing the seeker himself, he pressed his palms flat to the rock either side of Starscream's shoulders, and pushed, his letting his powerful arms take the brunt of the weight. Starscream gasped for air, then gasped again the rocks sprinkled down. He tucked himself under Megatron with wail of fright. 

"You're fine," Megatron assessed the shaking seeker beneath him, irritated by his dramatics. Like a simple cave-in was anything to get your wires in a twist about. The mines of Kaon on Cybertron would average two a day. 

"We're trapped!" Starscream cried, and his claws sunk another inch deeper into Megatron's chest plating. Megatron winced, but with arms now braced either side of Starscream to hold up the tonne of rock waiting to crush them both, he couldn't smack the seeker away. 

And Starscream was wrong. They weren't trapped. Megatron sensed a draft, and with it a route towards freedom. But without the proper equipment at the ready, it was impossible for him to tell where that route was. 

He looked down at Starscream again, who was currently trying to roll onto his front so he could crawl out from under Megatron. The seeker's wings had nowhere to go when he turned sideways though, and Megatron soon had a sheet of metal slapping him in the face. 

"Starscream!" He thundered. 

"I'm trying to escape!" Starscream snarled. "Every mech for themselves!" 

"You'll be crushed, you useless flimsy thing," Megatron snarled, wishing he had just one arm with which to snag Starscream by the scruff of his armour and drag him back to him, to safety. "Lie still, you fool. I know a way out."

Starscream stopped his inconvenient wriggling and stared at him, his optics two round orbs of red in the dark. "...You do?" 

"I'll need your help," Megatron admitted. 

The optics narrowed, "Oh, so now you need my help-"

"Starscream." 

Starscream dropped the gloating tone, "Alright what?"

Megatron tipped his head forwards, the movement awakening him to the dull ache in his processor. I head injury must have been what had knocked him unconscious during the initial rockfall. "The helmet," he said. "Remove it." 

He didn't hear Starscream's armour knocking against the rocks to scramble to obey, so he lifted his head again to glare at the stock-still seeker cringing beneath him. 

"That thing comes off?!" Starscream shrank back, fearful. "What have you got hidden under there?! You're not a suit of armour being controlled by a tiny mech, are you?" 

Only Starscream, Megatron thought. "I have powerful sensory panels," he explained, "With access to them I can detect a safe route to the surface, one that won't risk further rockfall." 

Starscream still wasn't sure. His voice was quiet when he asked, "You won't leave me behind?" 

Megatron glowered, "Why would I leave you behind when the only reason I'm stuck in this mess with you in the first place is because I was trying to protect you from getting crushed?" 

"Nice job protecting me," Starscream snorted, ungrateful for the fact that he was alive, when he would not have been had Megatron not acted. 

It was enough to convince him though, because, begrudgingly, he reached for Megatron's helm, pulling a face when his fingers felt around under the rim of the helmet for latches to detach it. Megatron turned his head to help him, wincing at how close those claws came to his softer facial armour and optics. He wouldn't put it beyond Starscream to 'accidentally' maim him. 

But with a gentility Megatron never would have expected, Starscream carefully undid the latches and began to remove the helmet. A sprinkle of dust and rocks fell down, but Starscream didn't flinch this time, his gaze fixed on Megatron's panelled head as it was revealed. The helmet fell with a thunk to the rock beside Starscream's head as his now free hands came back up to touch the panels. 

Megatron winced when he was poked. "Don't."

"Are they sensitive?" Starscream asked, and poked it again. 

"Very." 

Starscream smiled passively and stroked the panel he'd just abused, "What an interesting new vulnerability this is." 

"Don't even think about it." 

"I wasn't thinking anything," he could hear the pout in Starscream's voice. 

"Nothing new there," Megatron rolled his optics and nodded to the discarded helmet, taking note of the large dent on it's edge where the rock must have knocked him unconscious. Not for the first time did he owe that helmet his life. "Pick that up. I'll need it."

"It really is an awful bucket, Megatron. Perhaps it'd be best if it was lost beneath the ground forever?"

"Perhaps it'll be best if _you_ were lost beneath the ground forever?" 

Starscream picked the helmet back up and was obediently silent as he watched Megatron unfurl the sensory panels on his head. The proximity of the rocks above meant they could not extend fully, but they didn't need to be at optimal functionality for them to recreate the underground air pocket in Megatron's processor as a three dimensional image. He could sense the depth and structure of the rock all around them now, and further air pockets with which they might be able to escape from. 

"Behind me," he realised. 

Starscream blinked. "A way out?" 

Megatron nodded, then stiffened when the rocks against his back shifted worryingly. He needed to limit his movements for this to work. "Shuffle down and use your heels to kick out the rocks at my pedes, you should be able to make your way to the surface." 

"My heels are not mining equipment!" Starscream protested. "I don't want disgusting dust and pebbles stuck in them! They'll take weeks to-!"

"Starscream." 

As awkward as lying chest-to-chest, nose-to-nose, and optic-to-optic together was, it served Megatron well in intimidating Starscream into silence.

The seeker pulled a miserable face, and began wriggling his way down. "This is so undignified," he muttered, already level with Megatron's chest. 

"Digging your deactivated husk out of he ground is undignified too," Megatron reminded the ungrateful seeker, glaring at the rocks in front of him stoically. 

He heard Starscream mutter a curse somewhere beneath him, and tried not to twitch when he felt armour brushing his thigh. Now was not the time to distract himself thinking about what compromising position they were in. He felt Starscream slip through his thighs and heard the clunk of rocks being kicked aside. Megatron tried to bow his head and look through his legs to see Starscream's progress for himself, but it was too dark, and all he could see where rocks. 

"Starscream?" 

Stones clattered together. He heard Starscream curse again.

"Starscream?" He called again. 

"I'm almost out!" He heard Starscream declare, followed by a loud, mean-sounding cackle. "Freedom! So long, Megatron!" 

Megatron honestly wasn't surprised. Nor was he particularly bothered. The several tonnes worth of rock and stone bearing down on him was not too great for him to have shifted at any time, and he had only delayed such an action because bursting his way to freedom would have allowed the resulting landslide of rocks to fall atop of his vastly more delicate second in command -who appeared to have thought he'd left him for dead. 

With a weary groan, he mustered his strength, braced his legs, and rose. 

Digging himself out of the rocks took less than five minutes, and when he punched a fist through to the surface, he heard the incredibly satisfying squeal of a seeker who clearly hadn't been expecting his reappearance. 

"Megatron!" Starscream gushed, Megatron's helmet still clasped in his hands, his wings high and knees knocking. "You ...made it!?"

Megatron straightened up and wobbled atop the loose rocks they'd both just been buried under. 

In the light of day Starscream looked a terrible mess. His white armour was yellow with dust, his cockpit glass was crackled, and his pretty little wings were dented and crinkled from the rocks. But his faux smile at least, was as dazzling as ever. 

Megatron's temper cooled. He stepped forward and wordlessly held out a hand for the helmet. 

Starscream didn't hand it over, and instead bravely came to stand before him to lift it onto his head himself. Megatron decided to humour him, letting his sensory panels fold back to lie flat against his head, and Starscream stood on his toe-pedes to deftly place the helmet back where it belonged. 

It was a reverent, careful action, with Starscream checking to be sure it had been placed level. Dust was sprinkled across his dark cheeks, and lingered on the tip of his tiny nose. Megatron was temped to reach up and brush it away with a thumb. 

But the moment was broken when Starscream's optics glinted and he gave the top of Megatron's helmet a firm slap to secure it better, cramming it onto his head low enough to obscure his vision. 

Megatron glared beneath the rim and reached up to shift it back into place. Starscream laughed as he ran across the rocks, but the joyous sound cut off when the seeker stumbled and twisted his ankle because his ridiculous heels were unsuitable for every sort of terrain, rocky surfaces included. 

"Megatron, help!" He cried, falling dramatically to his aft and clutching his ankle. 

Megatron sighed. Next time he was letting the rocks crush him.


End file.
